The sad twist, of course, is that our
descent into our Orwellian-looking world—in which the NSA spies on citizens’
online activity, the CIA murders people using drones, and our national security
apparatus abducts people and holds them without trial—was initiated by a party
which exists primary to serve corporate rather than public interests, and makes
the case for its anti-social, retrograde policies by bleating about government
overreach .

When the Republican Party was in power,
it at least took some heat from a small and motley assortment of progressives,
some of their criticism motivated by commendable principle, others by knee-jerk
opposition.For most of President Obama’s
tenure, as he continued and in some cases expanded the despicable policies of
his predecessor, there was largely silence.Silence from the GOP because they agreed with him.And silence from progressives because they feared
that if they broke ranks they would become politically vulnerable.

But in the last year some rumblings of
discontent have begun emanating from Congress.Some of these have come from Democrats who are waking up to the fact
that our President is committed to neither civil liberties nor to social
democracy.But for the most part, the
emerging critics of the state have been members of the very party which egged
on the Bush administration as it trashed our democracy for eight years.Foremost among them are the likes of Rand
Paul, a contemptible specimen trading on his father’s name who believes in the
freedom of the poor to fail and the liberty of the powerful to exploit other
members of society.

These people are opportunists, who see a
golden opportunity to pursue their primary ambition: the dismantling of the
protections and provisions that are provided by our government to members of
the public.Such protections should
include protection from poverty, protection from disease, protection from the
indignity of unemployment, protection from pollution, and protection from
economic and social exploitation.To
these should be added provision for economic security, provision for access to
education, provision for labour laws, provision of infrastructure, and
provision of public safety personnel.

The opportunity lies in the manner in
which right-wing critics equate the infringement on our civil liberties by the
security arm of the state with the work of departments and agencies which exist
not to perpetuate some fantasy war on terror, but to serve the public
equitably, without the few profiting at the expense of the many.

The narrative that the right wing is
spinning will cite the abuses perpetuated by the military and intelligence
agencies—and let’s face it, given the influence of the arms industry, companies
like Blackwater, XE and Academi, and the war-profiteers who vacuumed up profits
behind our bombing campaigns in Iraq, our national security apparatus is steadily
being privatised—as an example of why the “government” cannot be trusted,
treating “government” as an undifferentiated blob, instead of a mass of
agencies, departments, practises and cultures, each of the with different
purposes and remits

In Congressional elections in 2014, and
in the presidential election of 2016, these irresponsible right-wingers will
campaign against cookie-cutter, right-wing Democrats like Hillary Clinton, forcing
the conversation further to the right.They
will seek to equate the very real abuse of power by the NSA and other agencies—abuse
which was authorised by the Republicans who passed the Patriot Act—with the
good work of other departments.

They will seek to persuade us that we
should live in a country in which an individual’s humanity and citizenship is
measured by his or her wealth, and where ill-gotten wealth is not only
tolerated, but encouraged.In this country,
right wingers will tell us, services like healthcare and education should only
be available to those who can afford prices set by a profit-oriented market.

And what is the alternative to their
fearful, stripped down, harsh version of society?

It is one in which people can recognise
a common interest in pursuing common endeavours which stand to benefit
something called the public.It is a
society wherein all labour is valued and rewarded in such a way that people can
live happy, equal lives.A society in
which public goods like education are provided to all children and students
with the knowledge that they will emerge from this collective investment better
and more prepared people.We could
create a society in which access to healthcare and medicine depends not on a
dollar income, but rather on a shared humanity.And where the ability to breathe clean air, drink sanitary water, and
eat safe food are birthrights rather than luxuries available to the wealthy.This could be a society in which all members
recognise a mutual obligation to one another, and to one another’s
children.Where greed and profiteering—in
which wealth is always accumulated at the expense of others—are stigmatised,
and where the knowledge that good deeds and hard work will benefit the
community provide more satisfaction than the accumulation of material goods and
fabulous economic wealth.

We live in times when such a society is
difficult to even imagine, to such a degree have avarice, inequality, and individualism
been elevated by the Republican Party and its corporate handlers.But if we are asked to accept that all
centralisation of authority, all attempts to restore equity from the federal government
will pan out like the security state’s authoritarian indulgences, imagining
such a place will become all the more difficult.

In short, the liberties the President
has taken in pursuing his war of terror, the disdain he has shown for civil and
human rights, and his pursuit of an ugly foreign policy which runs counter to
the public interest will diminish our chances of creating a just, equal, and
kind society.

About Me

I am from Northern California, and am the fifth generation of my family to have lived in the Golden State. Now I live next-door in the Silver State, where I work as an assistant professor of history at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. I research and write about colonialism and decolonization in Africa, teach European, African, environmental, and colonial history, and write this blog, mostly about politics, sometimes about history, and occasionally about travels or research. This blog also appears on the website of the Redding Record Searchlight.